Despite the severe economic downturn, this has been a great year for gear, with plenty of useful, convenient and, in some cases, downright innovative stuff helping brighten these dark times. As we enter the holidays, I’d like to share a couple of highlights from 2009, just in case you’re making that last-minute wish list.

Let me start by saying that I don’t have any ties to the manufacturers mentioned. I’m recommending these items because I like them and find them remarkable in some way. The list is arranged by price—low to high—to make it manageable for those of you on a budget (and/or COBRA). All prices are MAP (minimum advertised price) unless otherwise noted.

Cleartune Chromatic Tuner for the iPhone ($3.99)
Although it’s not a free app, it’s inexpensive compared to a dedicated hardware unit, and it’s the best $4 you’ll spend for a tuner in your life. It has a 10-octave range, with an easy-to-read display that shows you how sharp or flat you are by as much as ±25 cents.

Most importantly, Cleartune is convenient. If you’re a guitarist, you can set the iPhone on your amp and the app will register what you’re playing and give you an accurate reading—even on a noisy stage. Just be sure to put your iPhone into Airplane mode, unless you want to hear that annoying cell-phone beep through your amp.

If you’re on the lookout for other interesting apps for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch, check out EM’s special iPhone App Site.

Keith McMillen Instruments Batt-o-Meter ($29.95)
The Batt-o-Meter is an intelligent tester that not only tells you how much life is left in a power cell, but lets you test the battery while it’s still inside your stompbox or instrument (such as electric guitars and basses that have active pickups). Most importantly, it displays how many hours of battery power remains within the pedal or instrument being tested! That means you don’t have to open all of your pedals or remove the back-plate on your axe to see if your batteries will last through a show.

(Cue applause!)

On top of that, the Batt-o-Meter shows you the battery’s voltage level and indicates how much of its life remains as a percentage. If you don’t trust the battery inside the tester, no sweat: The device even has a self-test mode.

The Batt-o-Meter works with alkaline, carbon-zinc and rechargeable batteries in 9V, 3V, AA and AAA sizes. I found the Batt-o-Meter to be indispensable because of all the battery-operated items I use. Whether or not you are a musician, if you use batteries, you will want a Batt-o-Meter.

Focusrite Scarlett Plug-In Suite ($99)
The Scarlett plug-ins are a welcome collection of bread-and-butter effects—a multimode gate, a compressor, a 4-band EQ and a reverb—that the manufacturer says emulate the sound of Focusrite’s respected Red Series hardware processors. Although I can’t substantiate that claim by way of an A/B comparison, I can say that these plug-ins sound very good.

For example, I like the various colors that the reverb’s Pre-Filter and Air controls add to a track. The dynamic effects are easy to setup (I especially like the gate), and the EQ is very musical. (Although the company says it’s a 6-band EQ, you have to choose between highpass/lowpass and shelving at the extremes of the frequency spectrum; you don’t get both simultaneously.)

Remarkably, the Scarlett plug-ins are mercifully light on the CPU. For example, the reverb added only 1 percent to the processor load when used as an RTAS plug-in in a Pro Tools 8.0.1 session on my dual-core MacBook Pro. And the simple, straightforward interfaces make these effects intuitive to use. Available in VST, AU and RTAS formats, the suite makes a nice, low-cost addition to your native effects collection.

Moog Music MP-201 ($499)
Whether you use analog or digital processors, foot controllers let you squeeze an extra bit of musicality from your electronic instruments. While there are a number of expression pedals available, Moog took the concept to a new level with the MP-201 (Read my review of the MP-201). The device offers four simultaneous outputs (CV and MIDI) that can be controlled by an expression pedal, four pushbuttons, and synchable LFOs. That means you can change four parameters—each scaled differently if you want—at once and in real time. The controller assignments can be as simple or elaborate as you need, and you can save up to 50 of them.

But why let your feet have all the fun? I’ve seen a couple of artists using the MP-201 as a table-top controller paired with Moogerfooger pedals, modular synths and laptops. Check out my review and then listen to the audio examples where I use the MP-201 to process a Fender Stratocaster and modulate a Doepfer synthesizer. It’ll take you a long time to exhaust all the possibilities that the MP-201 has to offer.

Universal Audio UAD-2 Solo/Laptop ($499)
The editors at EM were reluctant to let me give the UAD-2 Solo/Laptop a perfect score in my review, but I fought hard for it. As a DSP host for the laptop, this ExpressCard/34 card (with its single SHARC chip inside) kicks ass. Of course, UA’s plug-ins sound amazing, but it’s wonderful having access to them in a plug-and-play, travel-friendly format. Just read the review.

Sure, the UAD-2 Solo/Laptop costs nearly $500, but you get access to premium effects and a dedicated processor to run them, leaving your CPU free to do more important things, like updating Facebook about your mixing session.

Wish List Items That Look Good But That I Haven’t Tried


Stylophone Beat Box, (under $40)
An inexpensive hardware instrument that combines a traditional Stylophone interface with a drum-pad-shaped touch-plate that triggers a set of kitschy sounds. Brett Domino has the best demo of it online.

ThinkGeek Bliptronic5000 ($49.99 MSRP)
With lighted grid controllers popping up everywhere, it’s nice to see one that costs less than $50 and has its own funky sound set. Another impulse buy for those of us who love working with handheld gizmos.

Tom Oberheim SEM ($899)
Thank goodness Roger Linn and Dave Smith convinced Tom Oberheim to reissue his SEM, the classic monophonic, analog-synthesizer module with the characteristic multimode 2-pole filter. The new SEM comes in two versions: One has a patch panel that gives you instant access to 33 of its features; the other has a MIDI-to-CV converter. Both versions have external audio inputs and, yes, both are on my holiday list.

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